NATHAN Brown had nothing but praise for his side after they took home the Grand Final over their fiercest rivals.
Saints beat Wigan 14-6 in a dramatic showpiece at Old Trafford to become Champions once again.
Here are some of his post match comments:
“The referee had no choice but to send Ben Flower off did he? Lance is a tough little fella and he wanted to come back on, but he couldn’t.
“I’ve been playing and coaching for a long time and I haven’t seen that in a grand Final, not in the modern era.
“Ben has served a fair punishment, got what he deserved and he will be thinking he cost his side a Grand Final. The good thing is Lance is ok and hasn’t broken anything.
“Coming into the game the two players you wouldn’t want to get hurt would be James Roby or Lance. We had to move Wello into the halves, put Makinson at full back and have Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook at right centre. Even against 12 I thought if we were to win the game it would be scrappy and ugly.
“If you’d have said that Mark Flanagan would play a Grand Final at 7, Wellens at five-eighth and Louie at centre we would have all broke down laughing.
“But the culture of the club carries it through. Saints have had that for 16 years here. Roby, Wellens and Wilkin have learnt that from Keiron Cunningham, Paul Sculthorpe… Wello, Robes and Wilkin are why we have won here.
“I have never seen a culture like that and I’d be surprised if it exists at any other club.”
He continued: “Wigan try and bully you and they did that in our first meeting this season. In the second we took it back to them. Coming into this game, we had a lot of critics talking about our lack of halves and about Wigan’s young players.
“But two of the best players on the pitch today were Greg Richards and Luke Thompson and Mark Percival is potentially the best young centre in England.
“Garry Schofield is my favourite ever English player… but he said our forward pack was useless and we only had two forwards. We got there because we have a good forward pack.
“No one tipped us because our halves were different. We had to play a different brand of rugby to get the job done and to come out and say that, well maybe it shows that people don’t watch the game and understand what is going on in today’s game. Willie Manu, Sia, Louie are damn good players and then you look at Richards and Thompson, at only 19, and no one gave them a mention.
“This win is built on what happened last season. Saints have some good recruits coming in and they will prosper going forward.”
